


It's only breaking the rules if you get caught

by Moonlit_Lampshade



Series: Common sense is for the weak (and those without coffee) [2]
Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 18:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3299624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlit_Lampshade/pseuds/Moonlit_Lampshade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next time they meet is at Starbucks. </p><p>Continuation of sorts to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2774003">7am is too early for consciousness</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's only breaking the rules if you get caught

The next time he sees Tony is at Starbucks.

It’s early - 7:17am last he checked his watch, which was at least a few minutes ago - on a Monday. 

He likes to go to Starbucks after his morning run to people watch, and also to practice gesture drawing by sketching the various patrons.

There are usually a lot of businessmen and women there, getting their morning coffee fix before heading to work.

It’s interesting to sketch the same people day after day. He gets to observe the same (more or less) people each day and build up a reference bank. The best time to draw, he finds, is when they’re waiting, either in line or at the bar for their drink. Most of them have a favorite that they can rattle out at a moment’s notice, so they usually move on before he can get any substantial progress. He does occasionally attempt to capture them ordering, though, to challenge himself. See how much of a likeness he can capture in the half minute or so it takes the customer to give their order and the barista to ring them up. 

He’s already half-sketched the new figure ordering at the register before he realizes that it’s Tony. His fingers freeze. _Is it creepy for me to be sketching him?_ he finds himself thinking. _I mean, I didn’t mean to, per se. ...what are you getting finicky for, Rogers? You sketch complete strangers every day. Yeah, but it’s different because I know him. I have a whole semester’s worth of classes with him. That’d be awkward. Okay, but he has no way of knowing I draw him. Drew him. Draw sounds like I’m going to make a habit of it. Which I’m not, not without his permission. Because that would be creepy. Right?_

He watches the barista bring Tony two espresso shots, and finds himself sketching the graceful curve of his neck as he tosses back the shots. 

“Thanks, Jan,” he hears Tony say. “You are an angel.”

The barista - Jan - shakes her head. “Just doing my job, Tony,” she responds as picks up the cups and turns towards the sink in the back, a smile on her lips.

Steve’s eyes follows Tony’s easy progress towards the bar and he finds himself sketching Tony again as he leans, loose and easy, against the high counter next to the pick-up area and starts fiddling with his phone. ( _Always the phone. What does he even do on there? Not texting - there are long strokes. But then, what if it’s swype? I wonder if it would be weird to ask...yeah, Rogers. Just ask this guy you barely know what he does on his phone all the time. That’s the best way to seem not-creepy._ )

“Venti caramel macchiato,” the barista calls out. Steve is surprised to see Tony push himself up and grab it - but then, of course it’s his. No one else has ordered in the meantime. 

He watches Tony turn to leave, and for a moment, he thinks Tony might have seen him, and for a moment, he hopes against hope that he hasn’t.

His heart sinks as Tony

“Tony…” he finds himself calling out before he can stop himself. _Riiight. That wasn’t awkward at all. Great job. Yeah, yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time. At least you god his attention? That’s good right? Except shit, now you have his attention. What are you going to say to him? Does he even remember you? He seemed pretty out of it last time. What if he just thinks you’re some creep...but no wait, he knows who you are; he texted you back…_

He instinctively ducks his head as Tony turns and scans the shop, looking for the source of the call.

As if that would be enough to hide.

“Steve!” Tony grins, loose and easy, as he lopes over. Steve blinks in surprise. Is he drunk?

“Uh,” Steve manages. _Oh, God. So eloquent, way to go Rogers._

“H-hi?” he tries again. _Close enough, right?_ Good enough for Tony, it seems, at least.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Tony continues. He glances down and does a double take. “Holy shit,” he gasps. “Did you draw these? _Amazing_.”

“Uh,” Steve says again, the paragon of eloquence that he is. He resists the urge to fidget and finds himself tapping his fingers against his thigh as he resolutely ignores the non-existent fluttering in his chest. 

Tony gapes at the page. “Is that one me?” he asks, gesturing with this free hand.

 _Oh, crap. Crap, crap, crap._ He’d conveniently forgotten that he’d been creeping on the guy before calling him over. Splendid.

“Uh. No?”

Tony looks down pointedly at the unmistakable silhouette and the rather distinctive watch that he’d hinted at, and gives him a look. “Try again,” Tony tells him, as he sits down in the seat across and takes a swig from his coffee cup.

“I didn’t take you for a froofy coffee sort of guy,” Steve blurted out, then internally cringed at the bluntness of the statement. Way to be an awkward asshole, Rogers. 

Thankfully, Tony didn’t seem to mind. He laughs, “Yeah, don’t tell anyone.”

At Steve’s puzzled look, he clarifies, “I have a reputation for being a hardass who only takes coffee black, but let’s face it, it’s usually because I desperately need the caffeine in me and who has time for cream and sugar in times of crisis? It helps that I’m usually too out of it to taste it. But to be perfectly honest, black coffee is just nasty bitter water - gloriously caffeinated bitter water, sure, but nasty bitter water all the same - that is too concentrated to actually get anything out of the taste. And sugared coffee without cream can get sour, which is also just no. Also, shit, that probably means you saw me take those espresso shots. Don’t tell Rhodey; I promised him I’d cut myself off at four cups every twenty-four hours, and I think this is technically my sixth or seventh...Oh, fuck. You didn’t hear that,” he hastily adds, shooting Steve a comically frantic look.

“Uh,” is, yet again, all Steve manages. He’s not nervous; what are you talking about? Model of calm, collected coolness. Really making a _great_ impression on the kid he totally does not have the beginnings of a crush on. 

Tony looks amused. “Not much of a talker, are you?” he asked rhetorically. “No need to get embarrassed on my account, darling.” Well...it’s not like Steve expected to be able to hide the fact that his face and the tips of his ears were turning red.

“How have you been since we last saw each other?” Steve finally manages. Good one, Rogers. And now you get to 

“Oh, absolutely horrid,” Tony all but cries, pressing his hand to his forehead and flinging his head back in dismay. Steve blinks. Is he always this dramatic? But no, he sees Tony shooting him a wink; he’s playing up the drama for effect.

“On a more serious note, things have been going kind of shittily, at least for me,” he told Steve after righting himself. “It’s not disastrously bad, but, well, it could be better.” He fiddles with one of the napkins Steve has strewn across his table.

He launches into a monologue - something technical and sciencey and honestly, he’d lost Steve at the first mention of particle something-or-other - and while Steve isn’t entirely sure what’s going on, he loves seeing Tony all lit up with passion and enthusiasm.

“It’s for a project for physics,” Tony tells him as he maps out esoteric diagrams on the napkins with a pen he pulled out of his pocket. “We have to run these simulations, which, by the way, is a complete waste of time; I’ve already figured the whole thing out, but they’re still making me do it so I’m basically reverse engineering the work to support the solution, and I’ve been rewriting the physics engines because frankly, the ones they provide are _crap_ and nowhere near as efficient or realistic as anything I could generate - and am, by the way, because I am a genius…”

He glances at his watch. “...who really needs to run, shit. It was nice seeing you again, Steve,” Tony tells him, finishing off his coffee and collecting the cup to take to the garbage on his way out.

“Catch you later,” Tony calls back.

“...Bye,” Steve says lamely, quietly, to the closing door.

After a while, he mentally shakes himself and forces himself to look down and away from the door. New patrons enter, but he has a hard time going back to concentrating on figure drawing. 

He jumps when his phone vibrates.

A new text alert. 

It’s from Tony.

“Would you mind texting me pics of the napkins? I might need them. For science.”

He glances at the napkins strewn across the table - covered now in Tony’s handwriting - and snaps the photos and sends them over.

 

He so does not still have the napkins pressed between the pages of his sketchbook.

**Author's Note:**

> The reason this is another entry and not a chapter is because it's constructed as a oneshot. It's a scene that takes place chronologically after 7am, but is not a direct continuation of it. 
> 
> And again, I play fast and loose with formatting. Again, hopefully it makes sense. There's probably some confusing "okay, which he is talking to which him right now" going on... I'm sorry
> 
> I just noticed I decided to name the barista Jan. I'm not actually sure if this is Janet van Dyne and if so, if she'll show up in any possible future installments. 
> 
> I think it's fairly obvious I am not a science or tech person. I don't know if the mumbo jumbo I made up about physics engines is even vaguely correct, but it sounded good-ish to me *shrugs*
> 
> Not beta read. (i.e. Feel free to point out grammar/spelling points.)


End file.
